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Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by stripping their garments.

Several cases have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.

Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.

It is often used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.

"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.

It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.